


Piece of Cake

by Shockcakes



Category: Sonic the Hedgehog (Archie Comic), Sonic the Hedgehog - All Media Types
Genre: Baking, F/M, Fluff, Humor, Shard can't bake
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-06
Updated: 2019-07-06
Packaged: 2020-06-22 18:13:22
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,351
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19676122
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Shockcakes/pseuds/Shockcakes
Summary: All Silver wanted was lunch, not to help two lovesick robots pine for each other.





	Piece of Cake

**Author's Note:**

> Been rereading Archie Sonic and good god this ship wounds me.

“ **Dude. Help.** ”

Silver didn’t know what to expect after entering Secret Freedom’s break room. More often than not, Nicole would be the provider of meals for the team, her extensive database of recipes granting no end of foods, the likes of which the time traveler could only fantasize of in his time. Currently, Nicole was away, out with the less-than-Secret Freedom Fighters and that left anyone and everyone free reign over the kitchen.

Needless to say, finding a panicked Shard amidst the current disaster zone of a kitchen didn’t make Silver’s top ten. Sticky batter decorated most of the table and even the floor, flour and baking soda were everywhere, and there was a strong burnt smell emanating from the oven that gave Silver vague memories of a city on fire.

“Shard, what did you do?”

“ **I… _might_ have tried to bake a cake.**” The Robian put up half of a smile, holding what Silver assumed to be the “cake” in question – unknown, blackened matter that surely not even robots could find a way to consume.

“Do I even _want_ to know how this happened? Or why?”

“ **Uhhh,** ”

“It’s Nicole isn’t it.”

“ **No!...Maybe.**

Silence.

“ **Ok _fine_ , yeah.**” He scratched the back of his head, unknowingly using the arm that had an impromptu egg beater upgrade. Silver decided not to mention the clump of cake mix smudging his chassis. “ **Could reeeeeally use a hand. Preferably one with psychowhateverawhosits?** ”

Silver knew Shard only mispronounced _psychokinesis_ just to irk him. The rational part of his mind decided that getting the Robian out of the kitchen would be the quickest way to get a proper lunch for the day.

Silver sighed. “What do you want me to do?”

\--

Nicole entered the team’s concealed bunker, inexplicably feeling almost…candid.

The base was starting to feel almost like a second home. She wasn’t fond of keeping secrets from Sonic and the Freedom Fighters, however, the necessity was accepted for the time being. There’ll come a time when the Secret Freedom Fighters won’t have to skulk in the shadows from both friend and foe. One day, the artificial lynx told herself – but not today.

Now wasn’t the time to dwell on that.

She was merely feeling glad to still be among friends.

As she entered, her sensors picked up on a minor fuss coming from the kitchen. Judging by the voices, she was able to deduce the bickers between Secret FF’s resident robot and hedgehog. Nicole wondered just when those two would start getting along.

“ **It barely rose! I told you we needed more yeast!** ”

“How was I supposed to know?! We don’t have yeast in the future!”

“ **Silver. The future _sucks_. Just hand me the icing thing.**”

Nicole giggled to herself. She’d be lying if she said their goofy arguments didn’t earn a chuckle out of her. She entered the kitchen-

“Shard? Silver?”

-only to be caught completely off guard by the current state of things.

“…What’s going on?” From the tone of her voice, it could be assumed that Nicole didn’t take too kindly to the kitchen’s new paint job.

Shard yelped, immediately leaping in front of Silver. “ **…Heeeeeeeey, Nicole!** ” Nicole narrowed her eyes. Nothing good ever comes when the Robian drawled his words. It was clear that he was hiding something. **“Back so soon?** ”

The two were covered in what she could only assume to be the same substances that made a mess of the walls and floor.

She continued to glare at the two troublemakers. “ _Shard_ ,” she began with stern indignation. “What’s going on?” She repeated with a bit less patience.

Shard and Silver exchanged glances – the latter clearly telling him the jig was up. Shard sighed in defeat.

“ **We were trying to bake a cake.** ”

“Emphasis on _trying_.” Silver chimed much to Shard’s annoyance.

“ **Yeah. Trying. We might’ve been a _little_ ,**” a glop of cake batter oozed off the wall and made a well-timed splat onto the floor, “ **in over our heads.** ”

Nicole’s expression softened somewhat. She was suddenly reminded of Sally’s own issues when it came to cooking. Her mess would’ve been _worse_.

“I can see that.”

Almost like magic, Nicole’s nanites went to work. In virtually no time flat, the kitchen was cleared of any unwanted baking residue – save for the two non-nanite entities in the room.

Nicole put up a smile, crossing her arms teasingly. “It must be some cake if you made so big of a mess.”

“ **Heh…you’d think.** ” He was embarrassed, obviously enough. Shard glanced away as he presented the fruits of his labor. He considered it to be a step above the charred lump of black matter he had somehow crafted before.

But not by much.

The so-called “cake” was a lopsided mush of chocolate with vanilla icing, partially burnt and half of it had sunken in like a bad souffle. He remembered when Nicole had her nanites able to simulate taste and allow her to “eat”. Chocolate was a flavor she became fond of, he remembered her mentioning. So what better option to give her than chocolate cake? Though, perhaps not this specific cake, he thought to himself.

“… **You hate it don’t you**.”

Despite its…everything, Nicole took note of the icing. Despite its sloppiness, Shard managed to put a little doodle of her face on top. It made her giggle.

“It…actually pretty cute.”

Both Shard and Silver exchanged incredulous looks, the former perking up more visibly.

“May I?”

“ **Uhh, s-sure!** ” He handed her the plate.

Materializing a fork in her hand, Nicole lopped off a tiny bite of the cake. That small, minuscule action somehow stressed his processors harder than his last bout with Metal Sonic. He tensed. Praying to Chaos she wouldn’t immediately spit it out in disgust.

Not like she would do something like that.

Right?

Shard gazed at Silver, hoping to receive some nonverbal sign of reassurance.

He shrugged, deciding to shove off towards the fridge. Typical.

A new taste had been introduced to Nicole’s database. It was…a taste. It was burnt on the outside, the baking ingredients not quite mixed properly. No matter how much she didn’t want to grimace, Nicole hid her’s well.

“ **So…you like it?** ”

She could tell he poured a lot of effort into it, a labor done simply for her. It touched her. Of course, the sensible thing to do was to give him her truthful opinion on the cake. He had earned that much.

“I…love it!”

Shard beamed almost instantly. His grin was just enough compensation to alleviate her guilt of lying through her holographic teeth. He pumped his fist in the air, blissfully unaware of how much he looked a cake-mix covered dork at the moment.

Silver, rightfully skeptical, shot her a gaze as he munched on his newly acquired sandwich. Nicole returned it with a look over at the ecstatic Robian as if to say “ _you want to do that to him?_ ”

Perhaps not, Silver figured. The walking toaster may have been a royal pain in the neck with his smug attitude and general arrogance but he at least meant well. The fact that he went out of his way to do such a kind gesture for her spoke enough about his charact-

“ **In yer face, Fernhead!** ”

 _Nevermind_.

Shard smugly walked out of the kitchen, goofily smiling back at Nicole before running off. No doubt to brag to the others about how Nicole “loved” his cooking. Nicole sighed, happy enough to see him overjoyed.

Silver turned to the holo lynx, his eye now on the lumpy confection he had a hand in crafting. The thing almost made him lose his appetite.“You know you’re going to have to eat the rest of that now, right?”

The time-traveling hedgehog brought her back to the reality of her actions. And of course, Nicole didn’t have the heart to give Shard the hard truth. Curse her kind nature. She set a reminder to give him proper cooking lessons one day.

Still, the cute little “Mini Nicole” on the ruined cake somehow made it taste all the sweeter.

“I think I’ll manage.”


End file.
